I’m not sure if it’s come under new ownership or if the owners are simply executing a drastic change in strategy, but this place has been utterly transformed over the past year. And that’s saying a lot when it comes to liquor stores. I used to come here for two reasons only: 1) it’s close and 2) they had an entire fridge dedicated to tall-boys(I enjoyed compulsively spending a grand total of $ 32 to buy ALL of them just to imagine for a night that I had the largest private collection of tall boys in Los Angeles as I slurped and slipped into a slurred babbling expressionist fantasy). There are still only two reasons that I come to this place. My two new reasons, however, are much more compelling: 1) the owners have a whole WALLOFFRIDGES dedicated to craft beer including labels you’ve never seen before and 4-pack and 6-packs of cans you’ve normally only seen in the bottle, and 2) these guys really, really care. Every time I’ve come in looking for something that they don’t carry, they’ve asked me for the product’s name and written it down so they can check it out on their own in case its worth sourcing. They seem genuinely proud of their collection and genuinely pleased to help you find something you love. Depth of variety is something I’ve encountered before in liquor stores(Hi-Time, Mission etc), but I can’t say I’ve ever seen it accompanied by such an earnest concern for customer satisfaction. You get the sense that they want to carry any product that’s good, and that they’re serving some grander vision to be crowned«most well-stocked specialty liquor store in town,» a title they’ve no doubt already claimed when you consider the competition. And best of all, they’re open late enough to accommodate a reasonably late-night urge to booze — a risk the store’s former incarnation didn’t care to run.